127 patients await heart transplants as SMS Hospital goes nearly 2 years without procedure

Jaipur: At least 134 patients in Rajasthan are waiting for heart transplants, as the state's largest government hospital, Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur, has gone nearly two years without performing the procedure, according to data from the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO). Of these, 127 are currently active cases. 

The hospital's heart transplant programme has remained suspended since its last transplant on December 31, 2024. While kidney and liver transplant services continue at SMS Hospital, including the hospital's recent first paediatric liver transplant, no heart transplant has been performed since then, reports the Daily.

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For patients who have reached the advanced stages of heart failure, a transplant can sometimes be the last lifesaving treatment option. Finding a suitable donor heart in time is critical, but the availability of organs alone is not enough. A functioning transplant programme also requires specialised doctors, trained support staff and dedicated infrastructure.

The lack of a dedicated heart transplant unit is among the key challenges facing SMS Hospital. The facility is also short of specialists trained to perform heart transplants and manage patients before and after the procedure.

Several members of the earlier transplant team have retired, while a new specialised team has not yet been constituted. Dr Anil Sharma, who performed SMS Hospital's first heart transplant, has also recently retired.

Dr Sharma says advances in medication have provided some relief to patients suffering from heart failure. Newer medicines can help control symptoms and improve patients’ condition, but they do not eliminate the underlying disease or the risk associated with advanced heart failure. According to Dr Sharma, some patients and their families reconsider the transplant option after experiencing temporary improvement with medication. However, such improvement may not mean that the underlying risk has disappeared, reports ETV Bharat.

Dr Sharma stressed that increasing awareness about organ donation must go hand in hand with strengthening the state's transplant infrastructure.

He said Rajasthan needs adequate numbers of specialist doctors, trained transplant teams and the necessary infrastructure so that organs can be transplanted promptly when suitable donors become available.

Ajay Gupta, associated with the Mohan Foundation, which works in the field of organ donation, also emphasised the need for greater public awareness.

A single brain-dead donor can potentially help save multiple lives through organ donation, he said. Appropriate counselling of families in such cases could encourage more families to consent to organ donation and increase the number of organs available to patients waiting for transplants.

The already heavy workload at SMS Hospital presents another challenge. Dr Sharma said the hospital's OPD sees around 10,000 patients every day, placing enormous pressure on its existing workforce.

Doctors have to deal with everything from routine illnesses to complicated super-speciality cases. According to Dr Sharma, expanding highly specialised services such as heart transplantation would require additional resources, specialist manpower and greater institutional autonomy

Dr Sharma believes that strengthening satellite hospitals could help divert patients with routine illnesses and reduce the burden on SMS Hospital. Giving SMS an autonomous institutional structure, he says, could also help strengthen research, specialised medical care and advanced treatment facilities, reports ETV Bharat.

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